Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. Grows Position in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS)

Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFUS - Free Report) by 105.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,464 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 2,803 shares during the quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Littelfuse were worth $1,449,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Littelfuse by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,679,767 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $649,442,000 after buying an additional 17,119 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 13.2% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 501,504 shares of the technology company's stock worth $128,179,000 after purchasing an additional 58,529 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 444,654 shares of the technology company's stock worth $113,649,000 after purchasing an additional 10,406 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Littelfuse by 13.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 419,586 shares of the technology company's stock worth $107,244,000 after purchasing an additional 49,588 shares during the period. Finally, Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. purchased a new position in shares of Littelfuse during the 2nd quarter worth $100,662,000. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on LFUS shares. StockNews.com upgraded Littelfuse from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Littelfuse from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Littelfuse from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $270.00 to $280.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Benchmark reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Littelfuse in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised Littelfuse from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $310.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $285.00.

Littelfuse Stock Up 4.6 %

LFUS stock traded up $11.36 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $260.80. The company had a trading volume of 179,239 shares, compared to its average volume of 103,477. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a current ratio of 3.55. The company has a market capitalization of $6.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.28. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $256.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $255.46. Littelfuse, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $222.91 and a fifty-two week high of $275.58.

Littelfuse (NASDAQ:LFUS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.09 by $0.62. The company had revenue of $567.39 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $557.38 million. Littelfuse had a return on equity of 8.49% and a net margin of 8.88%. Littelfuse's revenue for the quarter was down 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.97 EPS. Analysts forecast that Littelfuse, Inc. will post 8.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Littelfuse Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.07%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. Littelfuse's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.99%.

Insider Transactions at Littelfuse

In other news, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 8,715 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.40, for a total transaction of $2,391,396.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 59,654 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $16,369,057.60. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Matthew Cole sold 1,436 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.02, for a total transaction of $353,284.72. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 5,522 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,358,522.44. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Heinzmann sold 8,715 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.40, for a total value of $2,391,396.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,654 shares in the company, valued at $16,369,057.60. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 12,242 shares of company stock valued at $3,318,974. Corporate insiders own 2.30% of the company's stock.

About Littelfuse

Littelfuse, Inc designs, manufactures, and sells electronic components, modules, and subassemblies in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe. The company operates through Electronic, Transportation, and Industrial segments. The Electronics segment offers fuses and fuse accessories, positive temperature coefficient resettable fuses, electromechanical switches and interconnect solutions, polymer electrostatic discharge suppressors, varistors, reed switch based magnetic sensing products, and gas discharge tubes; and discrete transient voltage suppressor (TVS) diodes, TVS diode arrays, protection and switching thyristors, metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors and diodes, and insulated gate bipolar transistors.